How I’m Spending My Summer Vacation:
Happy summer all! I hope everyone is enjoying the hot weather and has fun plans for the summer months.
I have been busy managing our pier/shoreline construction project at home, and doing lots of traveling. The pier should be done soon and the barge is no longer parked in front of our property.
Last week was a full week of travel for me. Started in Chicago for a wedding, then went to San Diego for three days and then on to San Francisco – a great week full of CS meetings at which I showcased our Catapult strategy and drummed up support. In San Diego I spoke at BIO, met with LifeArc’s CEO (new name for MRC Technology), E&Y, Pfizer, Ignyta, CureMatch, and Tempus. Then headed up to San Francisco for meetings with Wellcome Trust, Claurus Ventures, the Parker Institute, Sheri Sobrato, and finally Verily. Wonderful progress with all and I am hopeful that we are closing in on our first major funder for the Catapult Impact Fund. Stay tuned!
Chicago wedding with my kidsGetting to Know…Sean Gross
Sean with fiancé Adriana
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you like to spend time when you are not at work.
A: I was born in Greenwich, CT but my family moved to Wellington, FL, “the Polo capital of the world”, when I was 5 years old. After high school, I moved to the Orlando area to attend Rollins College and study International Business. At Rollins, I served as the Community Service Chair for my fraternity and helped lead a number of service projects and fundraisers for local nonprofit organizations. My excitement around these projects and the missions they helped is what got me into nonprofit work and what helped me get my first fundraising job at the American Cancer Society after college. I have worked for a few different causes over the years, but I am most passionate about cancer related organizations because both of my parents are cancer survivors.
When I’m not working, I love exploring the City of Orlando. It’s so much more than theme parks (yes, I love Disney and Universal too!). From outdoor festivals, local sporting events, boat tours through one of the many lakes here, and lots of historic towns to explore, Central Florida is such a great place to live. My fiancé, Adriana, and I try to take in as much as we can!
Q: Share with us a favorite memory, vacation place, book, or TV show, and tell us why you chose that.
A: When I was in college, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Madrid, Spain. I stayed with a host family and attended classes in the city for 3 months. It was such a great experience to get to know a new culture and language. I loved it!
Q: What makes you laugh out loud?
A: I am a big fan of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. I watch every night and it definitely makes me laugh out loud!
Q: What is your favorite part of your job at CureSearch?
A: Our RDMs spend countless hours doing all they can to create an awesome CureSearch experience for our participants and it’s always great to see that come to life. Experiences like watching a child make his or her way to the stage to be recognized as a superhero or congratulating a hiker at the finish line after 20+ miles are the best parts of my job!
Board and Council News
Kathy Wanner, Catapult Advisory Council (CAC) chair is now serving on our Board of Directors. Bard Geesaman (MPM Capital) has joined the CAC. Our Industry Advisory Council (IAC) is now 16 members strong with the recent additions of Janssen, Ignyta, Gritstone Oncology, and our Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) is growing with new members Dr. Steve Lessnick, Dr. Lee Helman, and Dr. Lea Gore. We hosted great in-person meetings of each council in Chicago last month. Several of our new council members are pictured below.
Catapult
We have officially partnered with the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) to contribute up to $10M to co-fund the strongest pediatric cancer immuno-oncology projects. This is a huge validation for CureSearch, as PICI acknowledged us as THE charity doing the strongest work in pediatric drug development.
Our new forward-facing Catapult web page is live at curesearch.org/Catapult breaking down our strategy for the broad CureSearch community.
We’re thrilled to engage PR Firm, ROKKAN, as our pro bono partner to develop our CCAM campaign focused on educating our community on the importance of drug development and the Catapult solution.
We’ve formally submitted our $10M Catapult Impact Fund proposal to MRC Technology (now LifeArc) for consideration and
Laura had the chance to meet their CEO and leadership team at the recent BIO conference in San Diego.
Good momentum!
Research News
YI Update
The new YI-3 RFA, CureSearch Young Investigator Award in Drug Development, opened in May and we received 19 letters of intent by the June 12th close date. The applications cover several pediatric cancer disease areas including leukemia, neuroblastoma, bone and brain cancer. The intent of the program, which is aligned with our Catapult Strategy, is to support young investigators at the very outset of their research career to gear their basic research to the drug development pipeline, clinical application and eventual commercialization. In addition to $75,000/year of funding for 3 years, the YI award recipients will receive educational training in the form of a drug development webinar series presented by experts in the field and they will have access to industry experts through the IAC. The letters of intent are currently being reviewed by our Scientific Review Committee. The highest ranking LOI applicants will be invited to submit full applications in early August.
Catapult Ignition Project Update
The Catapult Proof of Concept Award, aka the “Catapult Ignition Project” is down to two finalists. The applications are in the final stages of review by our IAC and SRC members. We expect to have a final funding decision on these projects sometime in July. We are excited to launch our first Catapult award very soon!
CCIA Update
Back by popular demand, we will be opening the 2017 CCIA application window later this month. The applications will be open to hospitals that have supported CureSearch within the past year – either through an event or other form of support. Each award will provide up to $10,000 to a hospital to support crucial psychosocial services to patients and families. The application window will close October 1 and we will make final funding decisions by early November.
Development
Superheroes Unite!
Our RDMs have wrapped up their spring events. The picture above is from Erin R.’s (last initial now necessary – welcome Erin K.!) Southwest Michigan Superheroes Unite! event on May 20th that raised $34K and counting. Betsy headed up the season’s first Superheroes Unite! event in Miami on April 23rd.
Brecka held the Omaha Superheroes Unite! Event on June 3 and raised $100K. Our newest RDM, Amber Miller, attended to support and learn. This was her first time seeing a Superheroes Unite! event.
Ultimate Hike
Two very successful hikes took place this spring – Foothills and Dolly Sods. Thanks to the hard work of Brecka and Jen, both hikes attracted a lot of participants, a significant number of which were repeat hikers. Repeat hikers are a ringing endorsement of the program. Well done!
Brecka held the April 29th 28.3 mile Foothills Ultimate Hike, our most popular hike. The event has brought in over $190K. Way to go Brecka! Brecka was lucky to have Mallory, Jen and Sean join her – a seasoned team. Jen has lead and supported hikes, and Sean actually hiked all 28.3 miles at last year’s Foothills Hike. More about Mallory’s experience below. New this year on the Foothills trail is our Southeast Ultimate Hike. Remember our Ultimate Like: Be Like Sean wellness challenge of last year? Here’s your chance. The hike will be held November 11. There’s time to train, Team CureSearch…
Brecka’s CureSearch Support: Sean, Mallory and Jen at Foothills.Jen Murphy held the Dolly Sods Ultimate Hike, raising just about $100K and did an awesome job! The weather was perfect and the hikers, as you can see below, were treated to incredible views and comfortable hiking temperatures. Many return hikers set personal records for the 20.7 mile hike thanks to experience, great trail conditions and seamless operations. The Dolly Sods weekend came off without a hitch!
CS support staff Kathleen and Mary celebrates a great hike day with Jen.CureSearch Gold
CureSearch Gold has passed the $60K mark with events coming in from all over the country.
CureSearch Challenge
In Challenge program news, Geoff, Brecka, and Eric led us through the process of revamping/updating the Challenge website – curesearchchallenge.org. The new site is much easier to navigate!
In tandem with the new, improved site: we are now a Charity Partner of The Super Run. They host superhero themed running events across the country. With the Super Run now an option on our Challenge program, supporters can participate and raise money for CureSearch!
Business Development
Kiewit has hosted three of four Jakefest events – New Jersey, Maryland and Denver – and the three events have already passed the Jakefest goal of $300K for the year, with one more event to go!
ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) was a great success! We are formally submitting three proposals (Adaptive Biotechnologies, Epizyme and Bayer) and have additional meetings on the calendar.
Eric secured a meeting with Major League Baseball. Because of the relationship & activities we have with the Tampa Bay Rays (Go Betsy!), CureSearch will be included in MLB’s September 1st PR for Children’s Cancer Awareness Month.
That’s Not My Job
Waynette Shepard drew attention to Mallory Zarate as a great “Not My Job” candidate quite a while ago – little did Mallory know, she’s been patiently waiting to be featured for not doing her job. Here’s what Waynette had to say about Mallory in her nominating email:
I’d like to nominate Mallory for “Not My Job” recognition. She volunteered to take the lead as head of the all-staff retreat planning committee and did an exceptional job. From creating sub-committees, to scheduling conference calls and keeping track of action items, etc., she truly dedicated the time and attention needed to excel as the team lead. Not to mention her enthusiasm, cheerful personality and outgoing demeanor aided in bringing everyone together as a team, for both the planning committee and all staff during the retreat.
Since the retreat, Mallory was found not doing her job at the Foothills Ultimate Hike. When Brecka was asked for a picture of Mallory assisting hikers at the event, she couldn’t find one (not that Mallory wasn’t taping feet or handing out Cheese Wiz Dorito Pickles™). BUT, she did find the picture below – proof that Mallory has not been doing her job for a very, very long time.
Mallory and Brecka at the SUPER cold Ozark Highlands Trail in Arkansas circa 2013.Brecka:
We did it [the Ozark Highlands Trail Hike] the year before the same weekend and it was 70 and sunny. The next year it was -3 …but seeing as how Mallory is from Michigan and I’m from Iowa, we regrouped and did it anyway!
Just two colleagues both accused of not doing their jobs (Brecka was the last NMJ awardee). Keep catching your colleagues not doing their jobs and report them to HR!
HR News
Mid-Year Check-Ins
Thank you all for taking on the mid-year check-in challenge. And it is a challenge, technologically. As Dave Neumann pointed out, many of us are in Performance Pro just twice a year, which makes it hard to master the cloud-based performance review system. This should make it easier: do not try to complete or route the review – that happens in early 2018. Think check-in, not review. Make a few notes, chat with your supervisor about your professional development goals and progress, provide feedback to your supervisor, adjust goals as needed… easy, like. In sum, plan for professional growth and keep your goals current.
Contact Mary if you are having any issues with Performance Pro, or need help finding ideas or opportunities for professional growth.
Wellness
Lots more than three cheers to Yiwei! Eight of us officially participated in the recently concluded 30-DHC (30-Day Habit Change challenge). Only ONE of us made it. Only ONE of us entered our successes into the 30-DHC journal. Yiwei. She is pictured below with Daniel, a lucky part of her DHC goal. Yiwei pledged to swim or walk everyday with Daniel for the 30 days.
30-DHC honorable mention goes to Mallory who made it halfway, and a special high-five to Kathy B – a shadow participant. Kathy B, though she didn’t officially enter the challenge, quietly pledged to stay away from her beloved Ben (and his partner in crime Jerry) and other less tempting desserts for the 30-day period. I know of only one lapse!
30-DHC lessons leaned? We need accountability to a team or at least a buddy. Whatever the next challenge, it will involve peer pressure.
Gratitude
This month I am grateful for the beautiful summer weather and all the ‘yard joy’ I derive from our gardens. But more importantly, I am very grateful that so many experts in the academic, industry and business fields are willing to give their time (and often their money) to help us drive our work forward. Because we are dealing with kids with cancer who desperately need the best therapies quickly, people who normally compete with each other in their daily lives are willing to put that aside to do what is right for these kids. We couldn’t do what we do with out the incredible volunteer support we’ve built.
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Happy birthday wishes to the USA and:
Erin R – July 14
Happy anniversary and thanks to:
Betsy – July 15 (4 Years)
Michelle – July 28 (2 Years)
Erin R – August 14 (4 Years)
Until there are cures,
Laura
